Safety device for refrigerators



Sept. 30, 1958 E. WLNORTH ETAL 7 2,853,931

SAFETY DEVICE FOR REFRIGERATORS Filed Hay 12, 1954 United States Patent SAFETY DEVICE FOR REFRIGERATORS Edwin W. North, Rockford, and Robert K. Unter, Roscoe, 11]., assignors to National Lock Company, Rockford, Ill., a corporation of Delaware 7 Application May 12, 1954, Serial No. 429,226

6 Claims. (Cl. 981) The present invention relates to a novel safety means for refrigerators and similar cabinets and enclosures to prevent a child when trapped in a closed refrigerator or enclosure from sufiocating;

During the past several years there have been numerous accidents throughout the United States where one or more children have been trapped or imprisoned in an abandoned or unused refrigerator cabinet or enclosure while engaged in playing. These abandoned or unused refrigerators are provided with a latch mechanism that is operated by an external handle, and such mechanism generally latches or locks automatically when the door is closed so that should a child enter the refrigerator and the door he closed, either intentionally or unintentionally, such child isentrapped, and unless help arrives within a relatively short time will probably suffio'cate as there is no provision for opening the door from the interior and the usual gasket sealing the space between the door and cabinet of the refrigerator effectively seals the interior of the cabinet from the outside atmosphere.

Although such refrigerators or cabinets are usually of the upright type with the door swingably mounted upon a vertical axis, the present invention is also applicable to chest-type cabinets in which the lid may be pivoted or hinged about a horizontal axis to permit it to be raised or lowered. Such a chest-type refrigerator, freezer unit or other cabinet, has a relatively heavy lid which if accidentally or intentionally closed, is of such weight that even if the lid is not latched in closed position, a child may have difficulty in elevating the lid to escape or prevent suffocation.

When the door or lid of such refrigerator cabinets and the like is closed, there is little or no chance for any light to enter between the door or lid and the adjacent surfaces of the cabinet, and particularly is this true in refrigerator or storage cabinets where a gasket is employed for sealing the interior of the cabinet or enclosure from the atmosphere.

In an endeavor to prevent such accidents or happenings, laws have been proposed or passed making it unlawful to retain the latch on an abandoned refrigerator, ice box or freezer unit. But such precautions are not strictly enforced or complied with and children continue to crawl into such abandoned or little used refrigerators or cabinets and become trapped or imprisoned when the door or lid is closed. To prevent such accidents or happenings, the present invention comprehends a novel safevide such a door or refrigerator cabinetwith an opening normally closed by a light transmitting material whereby an entrapped or imprisoned child is attracted by a source of light passing through the opening and is enabled to locate and grasp a projection on the interior of the cabinet to dislodge the closure for such opening whereby air is permitted to flow into the enclosure.

The opening for the passage of air is preferably pro vided in the door or lid of the enclosure and may be provided in alignment with the portion of the handle that is usually manipulated for opening the refrigerator or cabinet from the exterior. By making the opening of sufficient size to permit the child to extend its hand outwardly through this opening when the closure for the opening has been removed, it is possibe for the child to disengage the latch from the interior. However, whether the child has the presence of mind to project its hand through the opening and actuate the latch handle or not, its grasping or engaging the visible handle or knob for the light transmitting removable closure in the opening and pulling the same downwardly and inwardly, disengages the closure from sealing enagement and permits the entrance of air to prevent it from suffocating and also permits it to shout and attract the attention of a passerby or one searching.

Thus it is an important object of the present invention to provide a novel safety means with which a refrigerator or other type of cabinet may be equipped whereby a child becoming trapped or imprisoned in the cabinet may readily obtain suflicient air to prevent suffocation and to communicate with someone at the exterior of the cabinet to make known its imprisonment.

Further. objects are to provide a construction of maximum simplicity, efiiciency, economy andease of assembly and operation, and such further objects, advantages and capabilities as will later more fully appear and are inherently possessed thereby.

In the drawing:

Figure 1 is a view in perspective of a refrigerator equipped with the present invention.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary view in vertical cross sectionthrough the novel safety means in the door, the view being taken in a plane represented by the line 22 of Fig. l and viewed in the direction of the arrows.

Fig. 3 is a view similar to Fig. 2 but showing in dotted outline the manner of removing the closure for permitting access of air into the interior of the refrigerator through the latched door.

Referring to the disclosure in the drawings and more particularly to the novel embodiment of a safety device selected to illustrate the present invention, the novel invention is shown embodied in the door 10 of a refrigty device that may be operated by any child who should become trapped or imprisoned in a cabinet, chest or other enclosure equipped with the novel safety release.

The present invention comprehends the provision of a novel. safety air intake Where a child entrapped or imprisoned in a refrigerator cabinet or enclosure, with no It is a further object of the present invention to proerator cabinet or enclosure 11 in which the door is pivoted or hinged for swinging movement along one edge 12 and provided adjacent its other or free edge 13 with any suitable latch mechanism manually released through operation of a handle 14. To maintain the interior and contents of the cabinet 11 at a relatively low temperature, a gasket is normally provided on the door or cabinet so that when the door is closed the gasket seals the space between the door and cabinet whereby the interior is sealed from the outside atmosphere. Thus it will be seen that should a child enter the cabinet 'or be imprisoned therein with the door closed, the child would soon exhaust the available oxygen in the cabinet and sufiocate in a relatively short period of time.

Accidents of this type or enforced imprisonment of a child haveoccurred rather frequently, and unless such trapped or imprisoned childis soon located and the door unlatched from'the exterior, death may result. To prevent such accidental or intentional imprisonment from resulting in a fatalityor mental-anquish to the child, its

parents and others, the present invention contemplates providing the door of such a refrigerator or enclosure with an opening in which is conformably received and anchored a tube or sleeve preferably of a suitable plastic composition, the tube or sleeve being shown anchored to the exterior wall 16 of the door by screws or other retaining means 17'. A sealing gasket 18 is preferably provided between the interior of the wall 16 and the adjacent edge of the tube or sleeve, and an annular rim or trim 19 is shown snapped in place to cover the securing means and the juncture between the portion of the wall 16 defining the opening and the tube or sleeve 15 and is held in place by spaced snap nibs or detents 21. The cylindrical, internal wall 22 of the tube or sleeve 15 shown provided with an annular, inwardly-opening channel or groove 23 to receive the peripheral edges of a pair of oppositely cupped plastic discs 24 and 25 mounted on one end of a removable plug 26 by means of a stud bolt 27. This stud bolt is shown provided with a shank 28 on which the discs 24 and 25 and a spacer 29 are mounted, the spacer maintaining the central portion of these discs in spaced relation with the central portion of the disc 24 clamped between the head of the stud bolt 27 and the adjacent end of the spacer, and the disc 25 being clamped between the other end of the spacer 29 and the adjacent end of the plug 26. The threaded end 31 of the stud bolt is received in a threaded opening in the adjacent end of the plug.

Mounted on the other or inner end of the plug 26 is a cupped plastic disc 32 of somewhat greater diameter than the internal diameter of the tube or sleeve 15 and adapted to have sealing contact with the inner edge 33 of the tube or sleeve 15. The disc 32 is shown mounted on the inner end of the plug 26 by means of a knob 34 having a shank 35 provided with a shoulder or reduction 36 bearing against the inner diameter of the disc 32 and clamping this disc between the shoulder or reduction 36 and the adjacent end of the plug 26 when the threaded end 37 of the knob is screwed tightly into the plug.

The tube or sleeve 15 and the removable plug 26 with its stud bolt 27 and 34 and the discs 24, 25 and 32, are preferably of plastic composition with the removable plug 26 and the parts carried thereby of a light transmitting composition. For example, but not as limiting the invention, the plug 26 and the stud bolt 27 and knob 34 may be of a clear methyl methacrylate, while the discs 24, 25 and 32 may be of a transparent or semi-transparent polyethylene.

It is found that a child trapped or imprisoned within a dark refrigerator cabinet or similar enclosure with the door or lid closed and latched, will in fear and panic claw, kick, push or otherwise exert itself in an endeavor to escape from its imprisonment in the dark enclosure.

By equipping such a refrigerator or cabinet, darkened when the door is closed and latched, with a device permitting the passage of light from the exterior, the imprisoned child will quickly locate the source of light entering the enclosure and grasping the handle or knob 34 will pull, tilt or jerk thereon whereby to disengage the disc 32 from the edge 33 of the tube or sleeve 15 and to dislodge the discs 24 and 25 from the groove 23 in the tube or sleeve 15. Such disengagement or dislodgement permits some air to enter the enclosure and upon complete removal of the plug 26 and the discs 24 and 25, provides for an uninterrupted passage of air through the tube 15. Thus the child not only is prevented from suffocating, but also may shout and be heard and thereby summon help. By forning the opening or passageway in the tube 15 of sufficient size to permit the child to extend its hand therethroug-h, and placing this opening or passageway in alignment or substantial alignment with the operating end of the latch handle 14, the child can unlatch the door and release itself from imprisonment in the cabinet or enclosure.

;v Although the invention has been shown embodied in an upright refrigerator or cabinet, it will be readily apparent that it may be embodied in a chest-type freezer or enclosure having a top lid providing one wall of the enclosure. In such an enclosure, the lid is'generally of substantial weight so that even if the latch be removed, the weight of the lid may be diflicult for a small child to lift. In such an enclosure, partially or wholly removing the light transmitting plug from the opening would permit the air to enter and prevent the child from sutfocating while imprisoned.

By employing semi-transparent or transparent plastics in the device in the opening of the tube or sleeve 15, light is readily transmitted therethrough to the interior of the cabinet or enclosure. It has been found that dead air spaces created by the discs 24, 25 and 32, substantially prevent the transmission or conduction of the cold air from within the enclosure or refrigerating space during normal operation.

The discs 24 and 25, although shown cupped when in operative position (Fig. 2), are initially substantially flat and being of a flexible plastic composition may be readily and easily flexed to assume the contour shown by the manner in which they are mounted with their edges in the groove 23. The same is true of the flexible disc 32 which assumes a cupped conformation when flexed and held in the position shown in Fig. 2.

Although the tube or sleeve 15 and the safety device are shown embodied in the door or front wall of the enclosure adjacent the handle 14, they may be provided at any convenient location in the door or in the cabinet Where the knob 34 is readily located and accessible to the entrapped or imprisoned child.

Having thus disclosed the invention, we claim:

1. A safety device for preventing a child from suffocating when entrapped within an enclosure such as an abandoned or unused refrigerator, ice box and the like having a door that is latched from the exterior, comprising a passage through the door, a plug detachably mounted in the passage for sealing the passage against the entrance of air to the enclosure and including sealing discs, means in said passage for receiving the edges of said discs in sealing contact with the encompassing surface in the door defining the passage, and a projection on said plug extending into the enclosure and capable when grasped by the child of moving the plug to break the seal between said discs and passage and allow the entrance of air into the enclosure.

2. A safety device for preventing a child from suffocating when entrapped within an enclosure such as an abandoned or unused refrigerator, ice box and the like having a door that is latched from the exterior, comprising a tube inserted in an opening extending through the door and provided with an internal groove, and a plug in said tube for sealing the interior of the enclosure to the atmosphere, said plug having sealing means projecting into said groove and a handle projecting into and operable from the interior of the enclosure to dislodge the plug and permit the entrance of air from the atmosphere into the enclosure.

3. A safety device for a refrigerator and the like, comprising a tubular member projecting through the door of the refrigerator and providing an opening through the door for the passage of air from the exterior to the interior of the refrigerator, a closure for said tubular member including a light transmitting sealing plug in the tubular member, said sealing plug having sealing members on and of substantially greater diameter than said plug for sealing contact of said sealing members with said tubular member, means for receiving and retaining said sealing members in sealing engagement with said tubular member, and a projection on said plug extending into the interior of the refrigerator whereby a child entrapped in the darkened interior upon the closing and latching of the door may grasp said projection and disengage said sealing plug and its sealing members to permit the passage of air through said tubular member.

4. A safety device for preventing a child from sufiocating when trapped or imprisoned in a refrigerator or other enclosure upon closing and latching the door of said enclosure, comprising a tubular port in a wall of the door providing a passage for the transmission of air from the exterior to the interior of the enclosure, a sealing plug in said tubular port having flexible sealing discs of light transmitting material providing sealing means to prevent the entrance of air through the port to the enclosure, means for detachably retaining said sealing discs in said port, and means on said plug for disengaging the sealing discs from the interior of the enclosure when grasped and pulled upon by the entrapped child.

5. A safety device for preventing a child from sufioeating when trapped or imprisoned in a refrigerator or other enclosure upon closing and latching the door of said enclosure, comprising a tubular member in the door of the refrigerator, and providing an opening through the door, a sealing plug in said member, said sealing plug having flexible sealing discs of light transmitting material providing sealing means to prevent the entrance of air through the tubular member into the enclosure, means for detachably retaining said sealing discs in sealing engagement with said tubular member, and a knob on the inner end of the plug projecting into the enclosure for disengaging or removing the sealing discs when grasped and pulled upon by the entrapped child.

6. A safety device for preventing a child from sufiioeating when trapped or imprisoned in a refrigerator'or other enclosure upon closing and latching the door of said enclosure, comprising a tube mounted in the door of the refrigerator and providing an air passage through the References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,800,237 Williams Apr. 14, 1931 1,861,000 Ellithorpe May 31, 1932 2,173,843 Hothersall Sept. 26, 1939 2,552,917 Becker May 15, 1951 

